Introduction to Sociology Written Assignment 2: - Essay Example

Social Change and the Environment of Social Change and the Environment The environment has been considered by many different organizations, especially since the onset of global warming. Many people are talking about how we as a nation and as a world can take better care of the environment through sustainable programs. President Obama has provided incentives for companies who go green instead of continuing to do harm to the environment (Obama, 2011). As people have studied the environmental issues, they have not been able to find one action or a few actions that can make sure that the environment is sustainable in all its aspects.

Also, many businesses feel that going green or cleaning up waste management will increase the costs of doing business (Kickul, Janssen-Selvadurai, and Griffiths (2012). Therefore, it is important to understand what people can do to be socially responsible for the environments across the world. To help with some of the issues, social entrepreneurship has been brought to the forefront of the discussion to ask businesses and individuals to be more prudent with how they work with and engage in the environment (Kickul, Janssen-Selvadurai, and Griffiths, 2012).

Some individuals and businesses are listening while others hesitate to become involved. Some believe that in order to sustain our planet, it will need to be interacted with differently than we do now. This means that society will have to change as we know if the society is to embrace total sustainability of the planet (Kury, 2012). Statement of the Problem Our planet is dying according to some reports or it is in a natural state of change. The discussions about this situation suggest that we must do something to stop the rapid environmental changes that are happening all over the world.

Because the concept of sustainability is perceived to be costly, many businesses and individuals do not feel it is worth the cost. Attempting to perform a cohesive situation where all people come together to work on this issue is very difficult, especially because there is so much resistance on many levels. To provide a more stable planet, it is essential for people to come together in a way to have a lasting effect on the environment. Social entrepreneurship seeks to develop this work more fully.

Literature Review/Discussion Castro (2012) points out that there are many laws about sustainability that have conflicting viewpoints of what businesses should do. The authors suggest that there are some initiatives that are easy to send but there are others that take more time because they are waiting for consensus. One of the issues that Castro talks about is sustainability and the fact that changes have to be adopted by not only the individuals, but by the people who are in power that can actually enforce the change.

This was a very important aspect of the article by Castro because it gave an understanding of why it seems that things stagnate in the legislature at times. Kury (2012) adds that sustainability is a very important aspect of making sure that the planet continues to exist. Kury states that there are a variety of entrepreneurial ventures that are focused on improving the environment but others are attempting to make a profit by finding innovative ways to create sustainability. Kury identifies the environment as a social issue because people have an impact on the environment and they make decisions about whether to work toward sustainability or not.

This is a very important aspect of the process of social entrepreneurship. Kury also defines intuitional entrepreneurs and states that these are entrepreneurs who work inside the institutions responsible for environmental issues, and they work to create an opportunity for organizations to use the resources that they currently have to find unconventional ways of creating models toward a specific goal of sustainability. Through her work, it is clear to see that there are people who are working on sustainability issues.

Kickul, Janssen-Selvadurai, and Griffiths (2012) suggest that the idea of social entrepreneurship starts with training business students and educators to design new courses for social entrepreneurship and then to implement them into the curricula. The authors suggest that faculty should create the desired skills and theories that are necessary for students to enter into this field so that the sustainable future becomes a reality. It is Kickul et al. (2012) that suggest that having programs in schools for social entrepreneurship will create a new generation of social entrepreneurs who will go out to their communities an began to make the social changes that are needed.

Conclusion There is no doubt that social entrepreneurship is important to the sustainability of the planet. I believe that social entrepreneurship is very important to our society especially when there is so much at stake. I know that there are many initiatives in the works that are making some progress with the environment, but it still seems that many businesses are still resistant to this idea. I am not sure why businesses are resistant because President Obama has provided incentives for companies to grow green.

The three articles that I chose have similar characteristics and they are all saying that social entrepreneurship is the way to go for increased sustainability of the environment. I agree that this is part of the way that this can happen, but I think that more should be done. I agree with Kickul et al. (2012) that there should be courses and degrees in social entrepreneurship to encourage a new generation of people who will care about and care for the environment. References Castro, P. (2012).

Legal innovation for social change: Exploring change and resistance to different types of sustainability laws. Political Psychology, 33(1), 105-121. DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9221.2011.00863.x Kickul, J., Janssen-Selvadurai, C., & Griffiths, M. D. (2012). A blended value framework for educating the next cadre of social entrepreneurs. Academy Of Management Learning & Education, 11(3), 479-493. Kury, K. M. (2012). Sustainability meets social entrepreneurship: A path to social change through institutional entrepreneurship.

International Journal Of Business Insights & Transformation, 464-71. Obama, B. (2011). Blueprint for a secure energy future. The White House. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy